Staff shuffle has MCHS in position for savings

Janz retirement allows for media center adjustments

The Morris Community High School will save about $80,000 with some staff adjustments to fill a retiree’s position.

The school board approved Monday posting a new part-time media assistant position for the school’s library.

The position is in response to the retirement of Gail Janz, director of the Media Services Department for the last 15 years, Superintendent Dr. Pat Halloran said, and to ensure the school does not lose any media center hours.

The assistant would work 20 to 23 hours per week and will receive $12.11 an hour with no benefits, he said.

Rather than hiring another full-time person, the library’s hours can be covered by current full-time assistant Tiffany Morrison, another part-time assistant and by Janz, who plans to come back and work at the center a couple days a week, Halloran said Wednesday.

This will result in about an $80,000 savings.

“This model allows us to still have extended media center hours,” he said.

Currently the library is open 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Fridays.

Over the course of this past school year, the media center was used 4,720 times before school and 734 times after school, Principal Kelly Hussey said during the MCHS board meeting.

Some of the job responsibilities named in the media assistant’s job description is processing new books, periodicals and non-print materials; entering data for cataloging; prepares reports, correspondence and bibliographies; and assist with inventories, instruction and circulation of all library media program hardware and software.
SALARY INCREASES

After an executive session of the board, raises were approved for Assistant Principal Jeff Johnson and school support staff. They received a 2-percent salary increase for the 2013-14 school year.

Last year, Johnson and the support staff received a 2.5-percent raise, Halloran said.

It was lowered to 2 percent based on the decline in equalized assessed value in the area, which reduced the amount of property taxes the district receives.

The support staff is made up of the district’s custodians and secretaries. There are about 18 individuals who are considered support staff.